#honestly i don't want a series that's less than ten minutes long to take six months to make.

[astramachina]

OKAY. TOMORROW FOR REAL. gonna work on the sequel to the Northern Lights short. i said i'd get it done before summer was over and it's already the first week of august so my ass has to get on that.

[sherlockfanficwriting]

Sherlock BBC Lestrade              “She’s Gone”

Summary - Working at Scotland Yard was the best thing that happened to you. The cases, the city, the clues, you live for it all as you compete with your intelligence against your brother, Sherlock. You have been friends with Greg Lestrade for a few weeks, and you enjoy his presence and personality dearly. You pick up on a dangerous case that leaves you vulnerable. Who will come to your rescue? 

Warnings - violence

A/N - Hello everyone! It feels like I haven’t written a story in months....honestly i havent. I won’t say the i was busy excuse. I definitely was sometimes, but i like to relax and chill. I hope you are all staying safe at home and relax and stay healthy and happy and please take breaks and chill online and read some fanfics! I have online school and it honestly is like summer...the weather is getting better, skies are blue. I can study and workout when i want, but i do miss my sports, but not school. I am living this to the fullest! Angst is my specialty, so enjoy this one :) 

You sprinted across the street as quickly as you could in heels. An energy drink in a slim can dangled from your fingers as you walked up the steps to Scotland Yard. You moved swiftly between the people coming and leaving through the doors. It was the second time you were late to this job, and you had only been here for no more than a couple months. You were notorious for low energy in the morning and couldn’t get yourself up from bed when it was time. As you walked up the steps you ran your free hand through your hair, smoothing it out. You checked your blazer, noticing that next to it was a red drop on your white shirt from the drink. You sighed and tried to cover it with your blazer. You walked down the hallway leading to your office. You kept your head down as you passed your boss’s office, hoping he wouldn’t notice your lateness. 

“(Y/N)?” Lestrade called. 

You stopped in front of his door and smiled at him kindly, trying to look sincere. You took a step into his office. 

“I’m so sorry I’m late. It won’t happen again. Did I mi-.”

He cut you off and asked, “What are you drinking?” He pointed at the energy drink in your hand. 

“Oh, nothing. Just a..drink.” 

“You shouldn’t drink that. They are terrible for you. I worry about you.” His eyes hung low and his voice was soft. You appreciated this from him, but you knew nothing was going to stop you from drinking them. 

“Right. I won’t anymore. Again, I’m very sorry.” 

He shifted in his chair. “You’re only ten minutes late. You’re completely fine, dear. I don’t want you all hung up over that. You’re my best person here. Don’t worry.” 

You blushed. “Thank you. Really.” 

Ring

Lestrade jumped in his chair to the sound of his phone abruptly ringing. You smiled at him again and slowly stepped out of his office to walk to yours. 

“(Y/N)” Lestrade called for you. You hinted a sense of urgency in his voice. 

You stopped again and ran to the door. 

“Yes?” 

“Case. A good one.” He arose from his chair and jogged out of the room, softly grabbing your arm to go. You ran with him, nearly tripping down the steps with your shoes. As you dashed out of the front door, you took a last swig of your drink then threw it in a nearby trash. You hopped into Lestrade’s car and he sped away into the inner city. 

You tensely sat, awaiting the case. He gripped the wheel hard and his eyes were focused. His legs never moved and he kept the speed climbing. He was nervous. From your experience of working with him you learned that this happened easily and it would only get worse. Without any hesitation you placed your hand on his right leg and lightly squeezed it. You felt his whole body relax as the car slowed into a steady state. You took your hand away and didn’t say anything. Neither did him. 

After six minutes of riding through the city, he stopped his car in front of a series of narrow brick townhouses. A few police cars were parked near the curb. Lestrade parked behind one. You hopped out of the car and took his side, walking to a particularly narrower townhouse. He opened the door to a few other police displaying tape and signs over the room. You were now in your most comfortable state. By the smell of the house, you knew exactly what happened here. 

“Who was stabbed?” You asked. 

Lestrade whips his head toward you, raising an eyebrow, smiling. “Just like your brother, aren’t you?”

“Except I’m greater than her.” 

You noticed your brother’s voice a few feet away. He stood next to the body on the floor, his eyes darting left to right. John stood behind him, inspecting the floor. 

“Why is he here?” You asked. 

“Excuse you. Why did you bring her, Lestrade? This is easy enough for me. She’s useless.” 

“Sherlock!” John called out, hitting his arm. 

Lestrade stood in front of him. “Sherlock, would you just....don't worry about it. We are here for solving crimes, correct?” 

“Okay. So, why is she here?” 

Lestrade sighed and stepped away, dialing a number. You stepped up to Sherlock and looked him in the eyes. 

“I know everything. I know who did it. I know how it was done.” 

“So do I.” He replied. 

“Oh, yeah? How did he die?” 

He scoffed. “I’m not telling you.”

“You don’t know it. You’re lying.” You looked at the body again. You knew you had it, like you always did. You saw Lestrade hang up his phone. You looked at him until he noticed you. He did and walked closer to you. 

“Did you figure it out?” He asked. 

“I did.” 

Sherlock rolled his eyes. “Let’s hear this one.” 

“Stabbed four times. Each in the same area. Stabbed by a family member. He tried to fight back, but he couldn’t. He was stronger, but the weapon was greater. He was killed by his family member, bloodline. More specifically, a brother.” 

“I knew that,” Sherlock said. 

“I’m sure you did!” You said. 

Lestrade stood and stared at you. “10/10. You’ll have to tell me how you do that. Exactly why you’re my favorite.” 

“Yes, I’m sure that’s the only reason,” said Sherlock, walking around the room. You rolled your eyes at him. It wasn’t a surprise to you, but you noticed a crimson red blush form on Lestrade’s face. 

“It’s a pleasure to be. I suppose I can tell you some things about it.” You said to Lestrade. 

“Oh yeah? What kind of things?” Your brother called out. You sighed. There was no point in competing with this part of him. He knew everything and would exploit it to ensure embarrassment. You took Lestrade’s arm and walked out of the building. 

“Let’s get out of here,” you said, walking toward his car. 

“Do you want to go to Scotland Yard? There wouldn’t be much for you to do there. You were perfect again here. Really, I’m so glad to have you. Not just for helping solve these.” 

You smiled at him to which he returned it. 

“You look tired. Are you getting enough sleep?” He asked. 

“Am I?” You weren’t sure. Wait, yes you were. You suddenly remembered how tired you were. Endless nights reading, thinking, pestering Sherlock. It wasn’t always easy to sleep, especially when you had this job. But you liked it. 

“I don’t know. I hope you are. Are you?” 

You lightly pushed him. “You are such a nanny. I am. We should go back to the office.” You released a long-held yawn. The energy drink was not doing its job. 

Lestrade chuckled. “No, we are not. You are going home and resting.” He opened the passenger door for you and you fell right in. He joined you on the other side. 

“I’m really okay. Am I showing any hallucination signs or whatever? No, I am not.” 

Lestrade drove away to your apartment. “There will be more cases tomorrow I know you can’t wait to get your hands on.” 

You sunk deeper in your seat and closed your eyes. “You’re right. I can’t wait.” You mumbled. The smooth drag of the car on the road made you even more tired. 

“Sooner or later you’re going to have to tell me how you know all that information without even being in the house for more than a minute, well, actually less. I really want to know.” 

You let out a small laugh. “That’s how it always was. You take what you know and connect it, making a plausible yet true explanation. It comes easily.” 

He scoffed. “Of course it comes easily and to Sherlock too.” You felt his eyes on you and he said while laughing, “Does my car look like your bed? We’re almost there.” 

You shifted over. “It does. Very good resemblance.” Much to your liking, it was a very comfortable seat. 

The car slowed down to a stop and you reluctantly opened your eyes. Before you could get up, Lestrade was at your door side. He opened it and grabbed your arms, guiding you to stand. You forced yourself to keep your eyes open and you walked with a hand on him to your door. 

“Fun day today. I’ll see you tomorrow.” You remarked.

Greg took the key out of your hands and opened the door for you. “I’ll come up. You don’t think I would let you trip now do you?” He put a supportive hand around you, leading you up the steps. He opened your door, making sure you didn’t stumble down yet. As soon as you saw your bed you collapsed right in, sleep overcoming your body. 

Greg unfolded a blanket and spread it on top of you. He stepped back to look at you, quietly asleep. You were so peaceful. He worried about your habits - not sleeping, caffeine drinks he couldn't ever drink in a lifetime. As soon as you started working with him, he couldn't ever stop thinking about you. You had the mindset of a risk-taker. You could never not live in a dangerous environment, and he knew that. He fell in love with your attitude and intelligence, your motives and charm. You lived precariously. Every case he had, he always counted on you. He was shy but it was almost as if you broke him out of your shell without even knowing...well he did doubt that. You knew everything, and with good reason. He only wanted you to be safe and protected. 

Greg walked to the door and locked it, walking down the steps to the bumbling city. A wide smile filled his face and only one thing was on his mind. 

-----------------------

You awoke to your peaceful alarm eagerly waking you up to start the day. You yawned and stretched your arms and swung your legs over the side of the bed. You noticed you were wearing yesterday’s clothes and the events of yesterday were finally remembered in your head. 

Greg

You shook your head and walked to the bathroom. You knew it all, how couldn’t you? Perhaps it was the first day you started working with him, as soon as he dropped a stack of papers when he saw you. That was when you really knew. It wasn’t without saying the feeling wasn’t mutual. It was. You just never showed yourself as lovestruck as he did. 

You turned the water nozzle for boiling water and stepped into the shower, decompressing. Then you did all your other cleansing routines and picked a dark set of pants and a blazer to go with a beige blouse. As you bent down to grab your usual pair of heels you noticed something was missing on the nearby counter. 

The energy drinks 

Of course, he took them, but with good reason. You needed to get your schedule on check and this was the first step in doing so. He cared about you. Without eating anything, which was your second mistake, you frivolously opened your door and skipped down the steps to call for a cab. 

As the cab pulled up to Scotland Yard you gave the driver his money and hopped out. You skipped up the steps, eager to thank Greg and, really, to see him. You dodged the usual people by the door and as soon as you got past, you ran up the staircase. As soon as you by the door of his office, you peeped your head in and smiled at him. Surprised, he looked up and returned an endearing smile. 

“Thanks for last night. I wasn’t feeling the best.” You said. 

“It wasn’t any problem at all. I hope you got enough sleep. You did, right?” 

You laughed at his uptight behavior. It was almost like Sherlock’s whenever you lived on the dangerous side. 

“I did. I feel great.” 

“There’s a new case I wanted you to know about. I’m not on it, but there’s some form of terrorism in London. Nothing active, it's on the down-low, but someone was shot at. There are heads on the killers, but it’s part of a fascist group. A small one. They’re going to start slow, but we’re getting people ready.” 

Your eyes widened. This was exactly what you needed. 

“Who’s on it?” You asked. 

“Uh, Steve, James, I think down in that group. They’re talking about that now. You’re not thinking of....doing something?” He asked, concerningly. 

Your heart dropped but then quickly rose back up. “No. I just wanted to... talk. I’m curious. That’s all.” That was a lie. You could be an asset to this case, a huge one. You just couldn’t let him know yet. 

He eyed you suspiciously. “I’ll be here if you need anything. Just some paperwork for now.” 

You smiled and headed to your office. He knew you were up to something and you were. You opened your door and dropped your purse inside, keeping your cellphone. You walked down the staircase and across the lobby to find Steve and James talking with others. 

You knocked on the glass door, but then led yourself in. They turned their heads and looked at you with a warm smile. 

“(Y/N)! It’s good to see you!” Steve cried out. 

“Did you hear about the new shooting? I bet you did and that’s why you’re here right now.” 

You blushed embarrassingly. “I hate to say it, but you’re right. I can help. Bring me with you.” 

Steve looked to the rest of the group for approval. They seemed hesitant. 

“I think we can bring you. I think my boss will see you as an asset, but you have to get ready and follow our directions. We’re going to the place of the shooting. We have our suspects, but they are hiding, possibly ready to pounce again. A unit’s down there now and we are heading out now. We have to be careful. 

You nodded your head at them and waited. James threw you a vest that you quickly clicked on. You watched them stack in their weapons and guns and whatnot. Steve opened the back door to the outside. You walked behind the whole group who began filing inside a large van. Someone stood in front of the door and stopped you as soon as you were about to get in. 

He raised an eyebrow at you then looked at one of the men inside. 

“Top Detective. We need her.” One of them said. The man shrugged and let you inside. The van speedily drove off down the streets. 

The van slowed down in front of a tall building with alleyways surrounded by alleyways. You waited for the men to exit out as you followed behind. You had your plan. They shuffled inside and walked up steps, turning corners. You suspected it was a financial building. No workers were inside. Not exactly a bank, but something more. A perfect spot for a murder. Busier than ever to notice someone in the clusters of people. Before you knew it you walked inside a large glass office. Blood stained the carpet. Objects and papers were swung off the desk. 

You were in your natural habitat. You knew what happened. Who did it. Why. When exactly. It suddenly hit you hard. You turned your head to look in the hallway and other offices. You inhaled the air as your eyes darted left and right, inspecting everything. You soon came to the correct conclusion that someone, possibly others, were still here, lurking in the corners. You didn’t tell anyone. You couldn’t. You weren’t even supposed to be here. 

Quietly you stepped out of the office and pretended to be leisurely looking inside other offices and rooms. You suddenly remembered Greg. He probably found out you weren’t even there anymore, if not just finding out right now. You felt bad, but you couldn’t help it. This was a hot case. 

You began walking to where your mind let you. You didn’t think. You just walked and let it take over. 

After about five whole minutes, your body stopped. You stood in the center of a narrow hallway. You didn’t know where you were, you just walked where you took yourself, but this place wasn’t safe. You looked left and right and suspected you were at the lowest level. The basement, or even lower. But you knew danger was nearby. You twisted your body and began walking around, looking for stairs or a door when suddenly you heard footsteps. You turned your head around, beginning to panic. You were nothing. You weren’t armed. All these thoughts flashed through your head. 

You heard more footsteps. You began walking left and right, looking for the footsteps. Then you stopped. There you saw him. A tall figure dressed all in dark clothes wearing a white bandana. You felt your heart beat harder by the second. You slowly backed up and began running but you ran into yet another clone of the man you just saw. You knew they were part of the group. How did they dodge security? 

You quickly looked up at him and into his eyes and screamed. Just pure terror. Before you knew it you fell to the ground, succumbing to the man’s forceful punch. 

You did this to yourself. Your own passion for danger turned yourself into danger. You became what you loved most, a case. It was up the man Greg Lestrade to use what he knew to find you. But remember, the clock never stops ticking. 

[96percentdone]

if you don't mind me asking, what problems do you have with the Higurashi anime adaption? I also prefer the visual novel but can never really articulate my criticisms with the anime, I'm interested in hearing your thoughts

Well first for a start it’s just ugly as sin. Let’s just get that out of the way. Season one in particular looks like it was made on a budget of ten dollars. It looks bad even for 2006 standards, but y’know I could live with an ugly adaptation if it was at least faithful to the source material. But that’s just it…it’s not. 

The Higurashi anime isn’t unfaithful in a technical sense. Many of the events that happen in the original visual novel do happen in the anime in some form (even if enough was taken out that they had to add a new arc but WHATEVER). That isn’t the problem. The problem is the entire focus of the anime adaptation, particularly in the first season, is centered on making higurashi into super horror, that in doing so it cuts out the emotional core. This will be long, so under the cut.

Let’s use Onikakushi as a case study. Now if we go by steam achievements, the original visual novel is around 12 chapters, although chapters are usually split in halves. Each chapter, for me and most people I know, takes about an hour to read, so about 12 hours of content. The anime adapted all of onikakushi in 4 episodes. Twelve hours of content shoved in four 25 minute episodes, give or take. That is 3 hours worth of content expected to be in one episode. You are already seeing the start of a problem.

Now, to be fair, a lot of the length of the higurashi vn can be attributed to the fact that it is a book. Much of what you read is just Keiichi’s inner monologue where he describes events or his own thoughts and feelings, and in adapting those in anime, you can show them taking much less time. But even with that said, three chapters of onikakushi is still too much to reasonably shove into a 25 minute frame, and it shows. 

Let’s start with the prologue of Onikakushi in the anime. It’s 30 seconds and already everything is wrong about it. 

That is obviously Keiichi. See, in the original vn, the prologue is a monologue that starts in complete darkness before cutting to a shot of the evening sky. We never see who is killing, or who they’re killing. We can only infer that’s what’s happening based on the sounds of a baseball bat and some of the phrasing in the monologue. 

This first scene is entirely ambiguous in the original VN, which works in it’s favour. You start off confused and concerned, and gradually forget as it progresses and more things start happening, until finally Keiichi wakes up from a dazed trance later in the arc to find Rena and Mion on the floor, and you realise “oh fuck so that’s what that scene was.” Everything you experienced was building to that, and it makes so much sense now.

But again, this is obviously Keiichi in the anime. And there’s shots of Rena’s hat, or her hair, or her and Mion’s dead bodies, and there is no ambiguity. The start of this scene is alright, as it’s entirely silhouettes and the room is dark, but shortly after you just see everything. Immediately after this scene when you meet Rena and Keiichi for real you realise “okay he’s gonna kill her” and there’s no suspense. You already know how it ends. 

But that’s not even the biggest problem. The problem is the focus of this scene has entirely changed. You see everything he’s doing, you can hear his heavy breathing, and get shots of his crazy eyes–emotionally it’s just “wow look at this crazy guy kill some people.” It’s entirely horror centered.

But the original visual novel was not like that. Take the first two lines of the whole thing:

This is entirely about how Keiichi feels in that moment. Sure, Keiichi is behaving like someone insane, but the scene wasn’t about that at the start. It was about the emotions he felt. His despair and his regret–all of his turmoil. It’s an emotional scene because the only sounds you hear at the bat and cicadas, and you know a murder is happening, but it’s also tragic just from the narration alone. Unnerving, and sad.

This doesn’t just set the tone for the arc, this sets the tone for the series. Higurashi is not just a horror visual novel, it is largely a series of tragedies. Of friends who fall so deep into their paranoia they start killing each other despite how much they care. The center of Higurashi as a series, is the emotional investment the core cast has in each other. Higurashi is about bonds, and tragedies, and overcoming them, with a horror setting. It is not about horror. 

And from the opening scene of the anime, I get no sense of tragedy whatsoever. Nothing about those first 30 seconds reads as tragic. I don’t get the sense Keiichi cares about the people he killed, I don’t get the sense I’m even supposed to care. Immediately I’m told to treat this like a horror gore fest, and so I do. The anime starts by setting the entirely wrong tone, and then continues with it.

Immediately after this they skip the “someone is apologising” scene, which yeah sure anime, go ahead and skip a scene vital to clueing us in to Keiichi’s mental state and sets up the big words of the arc sure why not, and cuts to happy fun shenanigans. Except club games and the like in the anime adaptation are either severely cut down for time, montaged like every watanagashi, or skipped entirely.

In Onikakushi, the only club event we even see in any meaningful way is the Old Geezer game, and that’s abridged to hell and back. We hardly spend any time actually getting to know or having fun with the characters. Sometimes events are fun events are fused together too, so the character introductions for Rika and Satoko happen on the day Keiichi is getting his tour, vs earlier in the narrative in class.

And hell those introductions are also egregious, because Keiichi monologues in them. His internal monologue describing how he just moved here is fine, but instead of like seeing the attributes of Rena and Mion like he describes, he just…talks over scenes of them actually doing the things. In effect, the anime has both show and tell happening, but tells you to focus on him telling you about Rena and Mion etc. Again, it’s hard to get invested in Keiichi’s friendship with the club if instead of showing it to you, they just tell you about it.

In the visual novel, Keiichi’s monologuing about the kind of person his friends are for a bit was fine, because it’d spend waaayyy more time actually showing them as people and their dynamics. Him telling you that was backed by scene after scene after scene, except the anime abridges, cuts down, or cuts out entire scenes for this, so again, how am I supposed to care when things go badly?

The anime priorities the horror aspects of Higurashi. Most of the run time of the second episode is focused on the horror scenes. The festival shenanigans are montaged, the president club game was entirely skipped, and the clue one (which granted much of it didn’t happen) was made even shorter to prioritise Ooishi. Again, this makes the show feel like it’s not about the characters and their connections, but it’s about creepy shit and horror, and none of that was ever the point of Higurashi.

Season 2 is better than season one, because they aren’t trying to cram 6 arcs in 26 episodes but 3 in 24, which gives them more time to expand on characters, but the damage is already done. Six entire arcs were already adapted with the entirely wrong priorities, so it ends up feeling unbalanced when suddenly in Kai what matters is how good friends they are and how much they want to fight fate and all that. It’s already far too late.

Even the horror scenes in the visual novel, have a level of emotional turmoil and conflict you don’t see in the anime because the anime is too focused on scaring you, like the scene in the prologue. You never get the sense Keiichi is conflicted about how to view his friends, that he’s hurt by it. You don’t see him cry, or debate if his friends are just possessed, or if they care about him at all or not. In the anime, when Keiichi killed his friends for real this time, I didn’t feel sad. I didn’t know I was supposed to care, because no time was spent making me care by showing who they are when it’s not creepy, or even making me even think Keiichi cares through his reactions.

That’s why it fails as an adaptation.  The Higurashi anime is bad because it gives you the entirely wrong sense of what the show is about. It’s not about the horror, or even about the mystery: it’s about the people in it, and the emotions they feel. And those people, those emotions, that connection that is so essential to why Higurashi works and the story it’s trying to tell, is lost through a reprioritizing. 

And honestly I could go in harder about how this affects pacing, because shifting the focus to give more time with the horror messes with the balance of how the horror is even supposed to hit you. Or how they cut out key details to the mystery through poor adaptation choices, or how the lack of time and budget seriously hampers it’s potential, or it’s crimes against specific characters like Satoko just because of how it’s adapted, but I don’t really need to. Those are all just a result of changing what the focus of the series is. That’s why the anime is bad. Because it doesn’t actually carry the essence of what makes Higurashi Higurashi.